Building a Better Online Business

Creating and managing your online business requires you to follow the same basic principals of any business - relying on sound Business Strategies. There are however, a few practices that differ or that just are unique to an online business. Here we share our views and experience with you to help you develop a more effective and profitable online business.

are those golden rules that always apply as they lie at the core of how to make your online shop work bestare those golden rules that always apply as they lie at the core of how to make your online shop work bestTrue

Your online store is a business. No matter how big or small. If you fail to grasp and embrace this notion then you will not be a success.

As we all know there are many online stores on the web and some are obviously more successful than others. How can you make your success out of your online store? Well we can’t guarantee such success but this article will tell you 10 initiatives which if NOT prevent, will spell out failure.

This means be sure that you present a common look and feel throughout your web site and shop. A sense of “sameness” in the way you present and deliver. This will also push your branding.

3. You need to be able to CONTROL your content

Just as you want the ability to self manage your web page content to be should you have the ability to maintain the content of your shop.

You should be able to…

Add / Edit / Remove products

Upload images supporting your product descriptions

Specify freight pricing by product or overall for different destinations

Have multiple options for products such as size, color

Ability to bulk pre-load product data prior to launch

Ability to suspend products if temporarily unavailable

Allow a product to be in multiple categories

Perform all maintenance functions online as an integral feature of your online store.

4. Make it SAFE for your customers to buy with a fully SECURE solution

Offering a fully secured shopping facility is not an option, it is essential. You should ensure that:

You are using SSL for encrypting customer credit card details

Do not transmit customer’s credit card details by email unless they are embodied in an encrypted attachment.

Do not share credit card details

5. Make it easy to SEARCH for products

You need to ensure that finding the right product is an easy and simple experience for your customers.

When offering a simple search facility be sure that it

Uses a single field

Display results on the same page

Search on product name and description

Make it fast

If you want more options for searching offer an ‘advanced’ search option in addition.

6. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) should not be an afterthought

Not all shopping carts are SEO friendly so pay close attention to this when choosing your shopping cart. When creating your online store you should try to make your store as ‘Google Friendly’ as possible.

Steps you can take include

Set your page titles rich with keywords that reflect the content shown

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Greg Tomkins

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Greg has been involved within the IT industry for over 40 years at all levels of business systems analysis, design, project management and consulting across some of Australia's largest and smallest organisations.

He brings a wealth of business and IT skills to the table delivering real world advice, solutions and experience which he loves to share.

All our articles are originally written and pitched at business people.

They are written to help you better understand what we do as web developers and designers to bring about the desired results you seek in the performance of your website. Our articles are provided so as to empower you with better information so you might make better decisions